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Turning Point Action official (and Arizona state Rep.) resigns from TPA after accusation of election-related fraud, drops out of race [Indicted!]

essentialsaltes

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A top leader of the national conservative group Turning Point Action, which has amplified false claims of election fraud by former president Donald Trump and others, resigned Thursday after being accused of forging voter signatures on official paperwork so that he could run for reelection in the Arizona House.

State Rep. Austin Smith (R) — who was senior director at Turning Point Action, the campaign arm of Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA — was accused by a Democratic activist of submitting petition sheets with rows of voter names, addresses and signatures that “bear a striking resemblance” to Smith’s handwriting, according to a complaint. Smith “personally circulated multiple petition sheets bearing what appear to be forged voter signatures,” the complaint said.

In a statement, the first-term lawmaker said the allegations against him were “silly” and part of a “coordinated attack” by Democrats and “those unhappy with my politics.”

[Smith] has previously derided signature-verification work by local election officials as “a joke.”

Smith said the prospect of costly and public fallout from the allegations shaped his decision to drop out of the race.

“This is a man who has lied to the people of Legislative District 29 and the entire state about our election operations for at least three years,” [Maricopa County Supervisor Clint] Hickman [R] said in a statement. “And now he is accused of lying about the signatures he personally collected to get on the ballot again. An investigation will reveal the truth.”
 
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AlexB23

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A top leader of the national conservative group Turning Point Action, which has amplified false claims of election fraud by former president Donald Trump and others, resigned Thursday after being accused of forging voter signatures on official paperwork so that he could run for reelection in the Arizona House.

State Rep. Austin Smith (R) — who was senior director at Turning Point Action, the campaign arm of Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA — was accused by a Democratic activist of submitting petition sheets with rows of voter names, addresses and signatures that “bear a striking resemblance” to Smith’s handwriting, according to a complaint. Smith “personally circulated multiple petition sheets bearing what appear to be forged voter signatures,” the complaint said.

In a statement, the first-term lawmaker said the allegations against him were “silly” and part of a “coordinated attack” by Democrats and “those unhappy with my politics.”

[Smith] has previously derided signature-verification work by local election officials as “a joke.”

Smith said the prospect of costly and public fallout from the allegations shaped his decision to drop out of the race.

“This is a man who has lied to the people of Legislative District 29 and the entire state about our election operations for at least three years,” [Maricopa County Supervisor Clint] Hickman [R] said in a statement. “And now he is accused of lying about the signatures he personally collected to get on the ballot again. An investigation will reveal the truth.”
Seems like corruption is running rampant by these Trump supporting groups. Want to know how much Turning Point USA made in 2022? Over $8 million. Two Wisconsin non-profits (Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and the Bradley Impact Fund) donated money to these far-right groups according to an April 16, 2024 article by The Guardian. And I live in WI, it makes me embarrassed to be a Wisconsinite: Powerful conservative funds hand out millions to pro-Trump far-right groups
 
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essentialsaltes

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The Barbarian

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The Barbarian

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It's hard to think of any elections at all in which the Republicans did not cheat!
The national party was recently released from court supervision as the result of a consent decree penalizing them for election fraud.
The decree, which dated to 1982, arose from a Democratic National Committee lawsuit charging the RNC with seeking to discourage African - Americans from voting through targeted mailings warning about penalties for violating election laws and by posting armed, off-duty law enforcement officers at the polls in minority neighborhoods.

To extend the decree, the DNC needed to show that the RNC violated the terms of the pact. Democrats pointed to a series of incidents during the 2016 election in which they alleged people who claimed or appeared to be working for the RNC were engaged in poll watching. A November 2016 POLITICO report article from November describing RNC spokesman Sean Spicer’s E e lection D d ay activities led the judge to order Spicer him to submit to a deposition.


You can blame Trump for a lot of the corruption in the GOP, but election fraud was a republican habit long before Trump. He just expanded it.
 
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wing2000

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A2SG

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It does seem like theres a lot more examples of Rs doing voter fraud than Ds.
Those who purport that the 2020 election was stolen believe the Democratic party is so ruthlessly efficient and so meticulously organized as to commit massive voter fraud and leave not a trace of evidence behind to incriminate themselves.

Does that sound like the Democratic Party to anyone else?

-- A2SG, if it does, then Will Rogers would like a word....
 
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